140 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



in view. But when the real ship was just begin - 

 ing to show its top-mast above the horizon, as at 

 A, Fig. 33, two aerial images of it were seen, one 

 at B inverted, and the other in its natural position 

 at C. In this case the sea was distinctly visible 

 between the erect and inverted images, but in 

 other cases the hull of the one image was imme- 

 diately in contact with the hull of the other. 



Analogous phenomena were seen by Captain 

 Scoresby when navigating with the ship Baffin 

 the icy sea in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 West Greenland. On the 28th of June, 1820, he 

 observed about eighteen sail of ships at the dis- 

 tance of ten or fifteen miles. The sun had shone 

 during the day without the interposition of a cloud, 

 and its rays were peculiarly powerful. The inten- 

 sity of its light occasioned a painful sensation in 

 the eyes, while its heat softened the tar in the 

 rigging of the ship, and melted the snow on the 

 surrounding ice with such rapidity that pools of 

 fresh water were formed on almost every place, 

 and thousands of rills carried the excess into the 

 sea. There was scarcely a breath of wind : the sea 

 was as smooth as a mirror. The surrounding ice 

 was crowded together, and exhibited every variety, 

 from the smallest lumps to the most magnificent 

 sheets. Bears traversed the fields and floes in un- 

 usual numbers, and many whales sported in the 

 recesses and openings among the drift ice. About 

 six in the evening, a light breeze at N.W. having 

 sprung up, a thin stratus or " fog bank," at first 

 considerably illuminated by the sun, appeared in 

 the same quarter, and gradually rose to the altitude 

 of about a quarter of a degree. At this time most 

 of the ships navigating at the distance of ten or 



